AN EASY SERVITUDE.
Just as the priest finished speaking, a lad of about the same age as
Amuba appeared at the portico of the house, and ran down to his
father.
“Oh, father!” he exclaimed, “have you brought two of those strange
captives home? We saw them in the procession, and marveled greatly at
the color of their hair and eyes. Mysa and I particularly noticed this
lad, whose hair is almost the color of gold.”
“As usual, Chebron, your tongue outruns your discretion. This youth
understands enough Egyptian to know what you are saying, and it is not
courteous to speak of a person’s characteristics to his face.”
The lad flushed through his olive cheeks.
“Pardon me,” he said courteously to Amuba. “I did not think for a
moment that one who had but newly arrived among us understood our
language.”
“Do not apologize,” Amuba replied with a smile. “Doubtless our
appearance is strange to you, and indeed even among the peoples of
Lydia and Persia there are few whose hair and eyes are as fair as
ours. Even had you said that you did not like our appearance I should
not have felt hurt, for all people I think like that to which they are
accustomed; in any case, it is good of you to say that you regret what
you said; people do not generally think that captives have feelings.”
“Chebron’s apology was right,” his father said. “Among us politeness
is the rule, and every Egyptian is taught to be considerate to all
people. It is just as easy to be polite as to be rude, and men are
served better for love than for fear.”
“And are they to stay here, father,” Chebron asked, “or have you only
brought them for to-day?”
“They are to stay here, my son. I have chosen them from those set
aside for our temple. I selected the younger because he was about your
age, and it is good for a man to have one near him who has been
brought up with him, and is attached to him; who, although
circumstances may not have made them equal in condition, can yet be a
comrade and a friend, and such, I hope, you will find in Amuba, for
such he tells me is his name. I have said whom circumstances have
placed in an inferior position, for after all circumstances are
everything. This youth, in his own country, held a position even
higher than you do here, for he was the son of the king; and, since
his father fell in battle, would now be the king of his people had
they not been subjected to us. Therefore, Chebron, bear it always in
mind that although misfortune has placed him a captive among us, he is
in birth your superior, and treat him as you yourself would wish to be
treated did you fall a captive into the hands of a hostile nation.”
“I will gladly treat you as my friend,” the young Egyptian said
frankly to Amuba. “Although you are so different from me in race, I
can see in your face that you are true and loyal. Besides,” he added,
“I am sure that my father would not have bade me so trust you had he
not read your character and been certain that you will be a fit friend
for me.”
“You and your father are both good,” Amuba replied. “I know how hard
is the lot of captives taken in war, for we Rebu had many slaves whom
we took in various expeditions, and I was prepared to suffer. You can
judge, then, how grateful I feel to our gods that they have placed me
in hands so different from those I had looked for, and I swear to you,
Chebron, that you shall find me faithful and devoted to you. So, too,
will you find my friend here, who in any difficulty would be far more
able to render you service than I could. He was one of our bravest
warriors. He drove my chariot in the great battle we fought with your
people, and saved my life several times; and should you need the
service of a strong and brave man, Jethro will be able to aid you.”
“And have you been in battle?” Chebron asked in surprise.
“That was the first time I had ever fought with men,” Amuba said; “but
I had often hunted the lion, and he is almost as terrible an enemy as
your soldiers. I was young to go to battle, but my father naturally
wished me to take my place early among the fighting men of our
nation.”
“By the way, Chebron,” Ameres said, “I would warn you, mention to no
one the rank that Amuba held in his own country. Were it known he
might be taken away from us to serve in the palace. His people who
were taken captives with him said nothing as to his rank, fearing that
ill might befall him were it known, and it was therefore supposed that
he was of the same rank as the other captives, who were all men of
noble birth among the Rebu. Therefore tell no one, not even your
mother or your sister Mysa. If there is a secret to be kept, the fewer
who know it the better.”
While this conversation had been going on Amuba had been narrowly
examining the lad who had promised to treat him as a friend.
Like his father he was fairer in complexion than the majority of the
Egyptians, the lighter hue being, indeed, almost universal among the
upper class. He was much shorter and slighter than the young Rebu, but
he carried himself well, and had already in his manner something of
the calm and dignity that distinguished Egyptians born to high rank.
He was disfigured, as Amuba thought, by the custom, general throughout
Egypt, of having his head smoothly shaven, except one lock which fell
down over the left ear. This, as Amuba afterward learned, was the
distinguishing sign of youth, and would be shaved off when he attained
man’s estate, married, or entered upon a profession.
At present his head was bare, but when he went out he wore a
close-fitting cap with an orifice through which the lock of hair
passed out and fell down to his shoulder. He had not yet taken to the
custom general among the upper and middle classes of wearing a wig.
This general shaving of the head had, to Amuba, a most unpleasant
effect until he became accustomed to it. It was adopted, doubtless, by
the Egyptians for the purpose of coolness and cleanliness; but Amuba
thought that he would rather spend any amount of pains in keeping his
hair free from dust than go about in the fantastic and complicated
wigs that the Egyptians wore.
The priest now led them within the house. On passing through the
entrance they entered a large hall. Along its side ran a row of
massive columns supporting the ceiling, which projected twelve feet
from each wall; the walls were covered with marble and other colored
stones; the floor was paved with the same material; a fountain played
in the middle, and threw its water to a considerable height, for the
portion of the hall between the columns was open to the sky; seats of
a great variety of shapes stood about the room; while in great pots
were placed palms and other plants of graceful foliage. The ceiling
was painted with an elaborate pattern in colors. A lady was seated
upon a long couch. It had no back, but one end was raised as a support
for the arm, and the ends were carved into the semblance of the heads
of animals.
Two Nubian slave girls stood behind her fanning her, and a girl about
twelve years old was seated on a low stool studying from a roll of
papyrus. She threw it down and jumped to her feet as her father
entered, and the lady rose with a languid air, as if the effort of
even so slight a movement was a trouble to her.
“Oh, papa--” the girl began, but the priest checked her with a motion
of his hand.
“My dear,” he said to his wife, “I have brought home two of the
captives whom our great king has brought with him as trophies of his
conquest. He has handed many over for our service and that of the
temples, and these two have fallen to my share. They were of noble
rank in their own country, and we will do our best to make them forget
the sad change in their position.”
“You are always so peculiar in your notions, Ameres,” the lady said
more pettishly than would have been expected from her languid
movements. “They are captives; and I do not see that it makes any
matter what they were before they were captives, so that they are
captives now. By all means treat them as you like, so that you do not
place them about me, for their strange-colored hair and eyes and their
white faces make me shudder.”
“Oh, mamma, I think it so pretty,” Mysa exclaimed. “I do wish my hair
was gold-colored like that boy’s, instead of being black like everyone
else’s.”
[Illustration: C. of B.
THE HIGH-PRIEST PRESENTS AMUBA AND JETHRO TO
HIS WIFE.--Page 68.]
The priest shook his head at his daughter reprovingly; but she seemed
in no way abashed, for she was her father’s pet, and knew well enough
that he was never seriously angry with her.
“I do not propose placing them near you, Amense,” he said calmly in
reply to his wife. “Indeed, it seems to me that you have already more
attendants about you than you can find any sort of employment for. The
lad I have specially allotted to Chebron; as to the other I have not
exactly settled as to what his duties will be.”
“Won’t you give him to me, papa?” Mysa said coaxingly. “Fatina is not
at all amusing, and Dolma, the Nubian girl, can only look good-natured
and show her white teeth, but as we can’t understand each other at all
I don’t see that she is of any use to me.”
“And what use do you think you could make of this tall Rebu?” the
priest asked, smiling.
“I don’t quite know, papa,” Mysa said, as with her head a little on
one side she examined Jethro critically, “but I like his looks, and I
am sure he could do all sorts of things; for instance, he could walk
with me when I want to go out, he could tow me round the lake in the
boat, he could pick up my ball for me, and could feed my pets.”
“When you are too lazy to feed them yourself,” the priest put in.
“Very well, Mysa, we will try the experiment. Jethro shall be your
special attendant, and when you have nothing for him to do, which will
be the best part of the day, he can look after the waterfowl. Zunbo
never attends them properly. Do you understand that?” he asked Jethro.
Jethro replied by stepping forward, taking the girl’s hand, and
bending over it until his forehead touched it.
“There is an answer for you, Mysa.”
“You indulge the children too much, Ameres,” his wife said irritably.
“I do not think in all Egypt there are any children so spoiled as
ours. Other men’s sons never speak unless addressed, and do not think
of sitting down in the presence of their father. I am astonished
indeed that you, who are looked up to as one of the wisest men in
Egypt, should suffer your children to be so familiar with you.”
“Perhaps, my dear,” Ameres said with a placid smile, “it is because
I am one of the wisest men in Egypt. My children honor me in their
hearts as much as do those who are kept in slavelike subjection. How
is a boy’s mind to expand if he does not ask questions, and who
should be so well able to answer his questions as his father? There,
children, you can go now. Take your new companions with you, and show
them the garden and your pets.”
“We are fortunate, indeed, Jethro,” Amuba said as they followed
Chebron and Mysa into the garden. “When we pictured to ourselves as we
lay on the sand at night during our journey hither what our life would
be, we never dreamed of anything like this. We thought of tilling the
land, of aiding to raise the great dams and embankments, of quarrying
stones for the public buildings, of a grinding and hopeless slavery,
and the only thing that ever we ventured to hope for was that we might
toil side by side, and now, see how good the gods have been to us. Not
only are we together, but we have found friends in our masters, a home
in this strange land.”
“Truly it is wonderful, Amuba. This Priest Ameres is a most excellent
person, one to be loved by all who come near him. We have indeed been
most fortunate in having been chosen by him.”
The brother and sister led the way through an avenue of fruit trees,
at the end of which a gate led through a high paling of rushes into an
inclosure some fifty feet square. It was surrounded by trees and
shrubs, and in their shade stood a number of wooden structures.
In the center was a pool occupying the third of the area, and like the
large pond before the house bordered with aquatic plants. At the edge
stood two ibises, while many brilliantly plumaged waterfowl were
swimming on its surface or cleaning their feathers on the bank.
As soon as the gate closed there was a great commotion among the
waterfowl; the ibises advanced gravely to meet their young mistress,
the ducks set up a chorus of welcome, those on the water made for the
shore, while those on land followed the ibises with loud quackings.
But the first to reach them were two gazelles, which bounded from one
of the wooden huts and were in an instant beside them, thrusting their
soft muzzles into the hands of Chebron and Mysa, while from the other
structures arose a medley of sounds--the barking of dogs and the
sounds of welcome from a variety of creatures.
“This is not your feeding-time, you know,” Chebron said, looking at
the gazelles, “and for once we have come empty-handed; but we will
give you something from your stores. See, Jethro, this is their
larder,” and he led the way into a structure somewhat larger than the
rest; along the walls were a number of boxes of various sizes, while
some large bins stood below them. “Here, you see,” he went on, opening
one of the bins and taking from it a handful of freshly cut vetches,
and going to the door and throwing it down before the gazelles, “this
is their special food; it is brought in fresh every morning from our
farm, which lies six miles away. The next bin contains the seed for
the waterfowl. It is all mixed here, you see. Wheat and peas and
pulse and other seeds. Mysa, do give them a few handfuls, for I can
hardly hear myself speak from their clamor.
“In this box above you see there is a pan of sopped bread for the
cats. There is a little mixed with the water; but only a little, for
it will not keep good. Those cakes are for them, too. Those large,
plain, hard-baked cakes in the next box are for the dogs; they have
some meat and bones given them two or three times a week. These frogs
and toads in this cage are for the little crocodile; he has a tank all
to himself. All these other boxes are full of different food for the
other animals you see. There’s a picture of the right animal upon
each, so there is no fear of making a mistake. We generally feed them
ourselves three times a day when we are here, but when we are away it
will be for you to feed them.”
“And please,” Mysa said, “above all things be very particular that
they have all got fresh water; they do love fresh water so much, and
sometimes it is so hot that the pans dry up in an hour after it has
been poured out. You see, the gazelles can go to the pond and drink
when they are thirsty, but the others are fastened up because they
won’t live peaceably together as they ought to do; but we let them out
for a bit while we are here. The dogs chase the waterfowl and frighten
them, and the cats will eat up the little ducklings, which is very
wrong when they have plenty of proper food; and the ichneumon, even
when we are here, would quarrel with the snakes if we let him into
their house. They are very troublesome that way, though they are all
so good with us. The houses all want making nice and clean of a
morning.”
The party went from house to house inspecting the various animals, all
of which were most carefully attended. The dogs, which were, Chebron
said, of a Nubian breed, were used for hunting; while on comfortable
beds of fresh rushes three great cats lay blinking on large cushions,
but got up and rubbed against Mysa and Chebron in token of welcome. A
number of kittens that were playing about together rushed up with
upraised tails and loud mewings. Amuba noticed that their two guides
made a motion of respect as they entered the house where the cats
were, as well as toward the dogs, the ichneumon, and the crocodile,
all of which were sacred animals in Thebes.
Many instructions were given by Mysa to Jethro as to the peculiar
treatment that each of her pets demanded, and having completed their
rounds the party then explored the garden, and Amuba and Jethro were
greatly struck by the immense variety of plants, which had indeed been
raised from seeds or roots brought from all the various countries
where the Egyptian arms extended.
For a year the time passed tranquilly and pleasantly to Amuba in the
household of the priest. His duties and those of Jethro were light. In
his walks and excursions Amuba was Chebron’s companion. He learned to
row his boat when he went out fishing on the Nile. When thus out
together the distinction of rank was altogether laid aside; but when
in Thebes the line was necessarily more marked, as Chebron could not
take Amuba with him to the houses of the many friends and relatives of
his father among the priestly and military classes. When the priest
and his family went out to a banquet or entertainment Jethro and Amuba
were always with the party of servants who went with torches to escort
them home. The service was a light one in their case; but not so in
many others, for the Egyptians often drank deeply at these feasts, and
many of the slaves always took with them light couches upon which to
carry their masters home. Even among the ladies, who generally took
their meals apart from the men upon these occasions, drunkenness was
by no means uncommon.
When in the house Amuba was often present when Chebron studied, and as
he himself was most anxious to acquire as much as he could of the
wisdom of the Egyptians, Chebron taught him the hieroglyphic
characters, and he was ere long able to read the inscriptions upon the
temple and public buildings and to study from the papyrus scrolls, of
which vast numbers were stowed away in pigeon-holes ranged round one
of the largest rooms in the house.
When Chebron’s studies were over Jethro instructed him in the use of
arms, and also practiced with Amuba. A teacher of the use of the bow
came frequently--for Egyptians of all ranks were skilled in the use of
the national weapon--and the Rebu captives, already skilled in the bow
as used by their own people, learned from watching his teaching of
Chebron to use the longer and much more powerful weapon of the
Egyptians. Whenever Mysa went outside the house Jethro accompanied
her, waiting outside the house she visited until she came out, or
going back to fetch her if her stay was a prolonged one.
Greatly they enjoyed the occasional visits made by the family to their
farm. Here they saw the cultivation of the fields carried on, watched
the plucking of the grapes and their conversion into wine. To extract
the juice the grapes were heaped in a large flat vat above which ropes
were suspended. A dozen barefooted slaves entered the vat and trod out
the grapes, using the ropes to lift themselves in order that they
might drop with greater force upon the fruit. Amuba had learned from
Chebron that although he was going to enter the priesthood as an
almost necessary preliminary for state employment, he was not intended
to rise to the upper rank of the priesthood, but to become a state
official.
“My elder brother will, no doubt, some day succeed my father as high
priest of Osiris,” he told Amuba. “I know that my father does not
think that he is clever, but it is not necessary to be very clever to
serve in the temple. I thought that, of course, I too should come to
high rank in the priesthood; for, as you know, almost all posts are
hereditary, and though my brother as the elder would be high priest, I
should be one of the chief priests also. But I have not much taste
that way, and rejoiced much when one day saying so to my father, he
replied at once that he should not urge me to devote my life to the
priesthood, for that there were many other offices of state which
would be open to me, and in which I could serve my country and be
useful to the people. Almost all the posts in the service of the state
are, indeed, held by the members of priestly families; they furnish
governors to the provinces, and not infrequently generals to the army.
“‘Some,’ he said, ‘are by disposition fitted to spend their lives in
ministering in the temples, and it is doubtless a high honor and
happiness to do so; but for others a more active life and a wider
field of usefulness is more suitable. Engineers are wanted for the
canal and irrigation works, judges are required to make the law
respected and obeyed, diplomatists to deal with foreign nations,
governors for the many peoples over whom we rule; therefore, my son,
if you do not feel a longing to spend your life in the service of the
temple, by all means turn your mind to study which will fit you to be
an officer of the state. Be assured that I can obtain for you from the
king a post in which you will be able to make your first essay, and
so, if deserving, rise to high advancement.’”
There were few priests during the reign of Thotmes III. who stood
higher in the opinion of the Egyptian people than Ameres. His piety
and learning rendered him distinguished among his fellows. He was high
priest in the temple of Osiris, and was one of the most trusted of the
councilors of the king. He had by heart all the laws of the sacred
books; he was an adept in the inmost mysteries of the religion. His
wealth was large, and he used it nobly; he lived in a certain pomp and
state which were necessary for his position, but he spent but a tithe
of his revenues, and the rest he distributed among the needy.
If the Nile rose to a higher level than usual and spread ruin and
destruction among the cultivators, Ameres was ready to assist the
distressed. If the rise of the river was deficient, he always set the
example of remitting the rents of the tenants of his broad lands, and
was ready to lend money without interest to tenants of harder or more
necessitous landlords.
Yet among the high priesthood Ameres was regarded with suspicion, and
even dislike. It was whispered among them that, learned and pious as
he was, the opinions of the high priest were not in accordance with
the general sentiments of the priesthood; that although he performed
punctiliously all the numerous duties of his office, and took his part
in the sacrifices and processions of the god, he yet lacked reverence
for him, and entertained notions widely at variance with those of his
fellows.
Ameres was, in fact, one of those men who refuse to be bound by the
thoughts and opinions of others, and to whom it is a necessity to
bring their own judgment to bear on every question presented to them.
His father, who had been high priest before him--for the great offices
of Egypt were for the most part hereditary--while he had been
delighted at the thirst for knowledge and the enthusiasm for study in
his son, had been frequently shocked at the freedom with which he
expressed his opinions as step by step he was initiated into the
sacred mysteries.
Already at his introduction to the priesthood, Ameres had mastered all
there was to learn in geometry and astronomy. He was a skillful
architect, and was deeply versed in the history of the nation. He had
already been employed as supervisor in the construction of canals and
irrigation works on the property belonging to the temple, and in all
these respects his father had every reason to be proud of the success
he had attained and the estimation in which he was held by his
fellows. It was only the latitude which he allowed himself in
consideration of religious questions which alarmed and distressed
his father.
The Egyptians were the most conservative of peoples. For thousands
of years no change whatever took place in their constitution, their
manners, customs, and habits. It was the fixed belief of every
Egyptian that in all respects their country was superior to any other,
and that their laws and customs had approached perfection. All, from
the highest to the lowest, were equally bound by these. The king
himself was no more independent than the peasant; his hour of rising,
the manner in which the day should be employed, the very quantity and
quality of food he should eat, were all rigidly dictated by custom. He
was surrounded from his youth by young men of his own age--sons of
priests, chosen for their virtue and piety.
Thus he was freed from the influence of evil advisers, and even had he
so wished it, had neither means nor power of oppressing his subjects,
whose rights and privileges were as strictly defined as his own. In a
country then, where every man followed the profession of his father,
and where from time immemorial everything had proceeded on precisely
the same lines, the fact that Ameres, the son of the high priest of
Osiris, and himself destined to succeed to that dignity, should
entertain opinions differing even in the slightest from those held by
the leaders of the priesthood, was sufficient to cause him to be
regarded with marked disfavor among them; it was indeed only because
his piety and benevolence were as remarkable as his learning and
knowledge of science that he was enabled at his father’s death to
succeed to his office without opposition.
Indeed, even at that time the priests of higher grade would have
opposed his election; but Ameres was as popular with the lower classes
of the priesthood as with the people at large, and their suffrages
would have swamped those of his opponents. The multitude had, indeed,
never heard so much as a whisper against the orthodoxy of the high
priest of Osiris. They saw him ever foremost in the sacrifices and
processions; they knew that he was indefatigable in his services in
the temple, and that all his spare time was devoted to works of
benevolence and general utility; and as they bent devoutly as he
passed through the streets they little dreamed that the high priest of
Osiris was regarded by his chief brethren as a dangerous innovator.
And yet it was on one subject only that he differed widely from his
order. Versed as he was in the innermost mysteries, he had learned
the true meaning of the religion of which he was one of the chief
ministers. He was aware that Osiris and Isis, the six other great
gods, and the innumerable divinities whom the Egyptians worshiped
under the guise of deities with the heads of animals, were in
themselves no gods at all, but mere attributes of the power, the
wisdom, the goodness, the anger of the one great God--a God so mighty
that his name was unknown, and that it was only when each of his
attributes was given an individuality and worshiped as a god that it
could be understood by the finite sense of man.
All this was known to Ameres and the few who, like him, had been
admitted to the inmost mysteries of the Egyptian religion. The rest
of the population in Egypt worshiped in truth and in faith the
animal-headed gods and the animals sacred to them; and yet as to these
animals there was no consensus of opinion. In one nome or division of
the kingdom the crocodile was sacred; in another he was regarded with
dislike, and the ichneumon, that was supposed to be his destroyer, was
deified. In one the goat was worshiped, and in another eaten for food;
and so it was throughout the whole of the list of sacred animals,
which were regarded with reverence or indifference according to the
gods who were looked upon as the special tutelary deities of the nome.
It was the opinion of Ameres that the knowledge, confined only to the
initiated, should be more widely disseminated, and, without wishing to
extend it at present to the ignorant masses of the peasantry and
laborers, he thought that all the educated and intelligent classes of
Egypt should be admitted to an understanding of the real nature of the
gods they worshiped and the inner truths of their religion. He was
willing to admit that the process must be gradual, and that it would
be necessary to enlarge gradually the circle of the initiated. His
proposals were nevertheless received with dismay and horror by his
colleagues. They asserted that to allow others besides the higher
priesthood to become aware of the deep mysteries of their religion
would be attended with terrible consequences.
In the first place, it would shake entirely the respect and reverence
in which the priesthood were held, and would annihilate their
influence. The temples would be deserted, and, losing the faith which
they now so steadfastly held in the gods, people would soon cease to
have any religion at all. “There are no people,” they urged, “on the
face of the earth so moral, so contented, so happy, and so easily
ruled as the Egyptians; but what would they be did you destroy all
their beliefs, and launch them upon a sea of doubt and speculation! No
longer would they look up to those who have so long been their guides
and teachers, and whom they regard as possessing a knowledge and
wisdom infinitely beyond theirs. They would accuse us of having
deceived them, and in their blind fury destroy alike the gods and
their ministers. The idea of such a thing is horrible.”
Ameres was silenced, though not convinced. He felt, indeed, that there
was much truth in the view they entertained of the matter, and that
terrible consequences would almost certainly follow the discovery by
the people that for thousands of years they had been led by the
priests to worship as gods those who were no gods at all, and he saw
that the evil which would arise from a general enlightenment of the
people would outweigh any benefit that they could derive from the
discovery. The system had, as his colleagues said, worked well; and
the fact that the people worshiped as actual deities imaginary beings
who were really but the representatives of the attributes of the
infinite God, could not be said to have done them any actual harm. At
any rate, he alone and unaided could do nothing. Only with the general
consent of the higher priesthood could the circle of initiated be
widened, and any movement on his part alone would simply bring upon
himself disgrace and death. Therefore, after unburdening himself in a
council composed only of the higher initiates, he held his peace and
went on the quiet tenor of his way.
Enlightened as he was, he felt that he did no wrong to preside at
the sacrifices and take part in the services of the gods. He was
worshiping not the animal-headed idols, but the attributes which they
personified. He felt pity for the ignorant multitude who laid their
offerings upon the shrine; and yet he felt that it would shatter their
happiness instead of adding to it were they to know that the deity
they worshiped was a myth. He allowed his wife and daughter to join
with the priestesses in the service at the temple, and in his heart
acknowledged that there was much in the contention of those who argued
that the spread of the knowledge of the inner mysteries would not
conduce to the happiness of all who received it. Indeed he himself
would have shrunk from disturbing the minds of his wife and daughter
by informing them that all their pious ministrations in the temple
were offered to non-existent gods; that the sacred animals they tended
were in no way more sacred than others, save that in them were
recognized some shadow of the attributes of the unknown God.
His eldest son was, he saw, not of a disposition to be troubled with
the problems which gave him so much subject for thought and care. He
would conduct the services consciously and well. He would bear a
respectable part when, on his accession to the high-priesthood, he
became one of the councilors of the monarch. He had common sense, but
no imagination. The knowledge of the inmost mysteries would not
disturb his mind in the slightest degree, and it was improbable that
even a thought would ever cross his mind that the terrible deception
practiced by the enlightened upon the whole people was anything but
right and proper.
Ameres saw, however, that Chebron was altogether differently
constituted. He was very intelligent, and was possessed of an ardent
thirst for knowledge of all kinds; but he had also his father’s habit
of looking at matters from all points of view and of thinking for
himself. The manner in which Ameres had himself superintended his
studies and taught him to work with his understanding, and to convince
himself that each rule and precept was true before proceeding to the
next, had developed his thinking powers. Altogether, Ameres saw that
the doubts which filled his own mind as to the honesty, or even
expediency, of keeping the whole people in darkness and error would
probably be felt with even greater force by Chebron.
He had determined, therefore, that the lad should not work up through
all the grades of the priesthood to the upper rank, but should, after
rising high enough to fit himself for official employment, turn his
attention to one or other of the great departments of state.